Weekdays
I study at the largest university in Indonesia called Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) which is only a 5 minute walk from my kos (student boarding house). I walk through my lively neighbourhood every morning. Every morning, without fail, I hear many men whistle, and say 'cantik, cantik', and old ladies peep up at me, smile and stare at my white skin, long-legs and light-brown hair. All this attention makes me feel like I'm famous! I love to watch the village life around me on my way to uni. It's very interesting to see the little food stalls set up on the side of the road and where the popular food is. There are also delicious aromas wafting from these stalls and roadside warungs. However, much of the food is fried so I often give it a miss and buy my food from a local, fresh food market and grocer nearby.
Everyday, I look forward to buying lunch with my Aussie friends after my Bahasa Indonesia class from 9am-12pm at UGM. Then we usually go to the gym, or I meet with my tutor, or help out at a local school with my friend Ri. We hold a "Craft-a-noon" on Thursday.. afternoon ;). The kids seem to be loving it so far which is great! It's also a great opportunity to practice our Bahasa and for the children to practice their English. Ri and I always enjoy our craft times as we laugh with the children at many random things. I also enjoy working with one boy with a mental disability who loves to make people laugh (sometimes by covering his legs in paint :/). He also randomly sings the SpongeBob Square-pants theme song which is great since it's something Ri and I recognise and can sing along to with the children. This week will be my last week helping run the Craft-a-noons because I will be moving to live in Gunung Kidul (a remote village) on Saturday to improve education and small businesses. I am hoping to start craft-a-noons and olahraga-noons (sport afternoons) there.
Weekends!
Over the last seven weeks I have also been to Borobudur (the largest Buddhist temple in the world) for the sunrise tour. Alex, Ri and I woke up at 4am to see the sunrise at about 5am. It was very serene and beautiful. I would definitely go back again. The colours of the clouds and the black silhouette of mountains on our right was stunning. It was also interesting to see the street lights turn-off as the sunlight lit-up the town below us. It was also great to see the town's layout and all the bright green grass areas, trees and rice fields. We made our way down from the temple and I decided to wrap my 'holy, Buddhist' yellow sarong around my neck instead of my waist- bad idea!! I don't know if it was karma, but a bee was too attracted to my brightly coloured sarong and stung me twice on the back of the neck! Ouch! Anyway, I tried to ignore the pain and enjoyed the delicious banana and chocolate pastry that was provided afterwards. We quickly walked back to the Lotus II Guesthouse (which was absolutely beautiful!) and put some cold water on my sore neck :( Then we spent the day chilling by the rice paddy fields, on our private veranda, reading and listening to music. Then we grabbed our backpacks, signed out of our room :'( and bought some lunch and fresh produce from the local markets before we jumped on the local bus to go home.
Another highlight was going to the end of Jalan Kaliurang (Kaliurang Road). I live on km 5 of this road and it goes up to km 25 which is at the base of a mountain called Mt. Merapi - also an active volcano that is supposed to erupt soon! :/ Ri, Alex and I caught a local bus all the way from km5 to km 25 which took us through the city and local villages. The scenery in the local villages was beautiful and very interesting to see buffalo and goats walking through rice paddy fields. The way of life in the village compared to the city is so different and they are only a few minutes away from each other. Jalan Kaliurang km 25 is an amazing place for people to visit for a fun weekend. It has animal-shaped paddle-boats, a short walk to a waterfall, a steep hike to see Mt. Merapi (which was amazing!), and there many places to eat and to buy fresh produce. There was also a group of older ladies selling sticky rice in banana leaves and the most delicious tofu I have ever tasted! There was also a lot of skinned kelinichi (rabbits) hanging around the food places which was interesting, but not appreciated by my two vego friends! After our hike, lunch and a paddle-boat ride we walked through the village to Ullen Sentalu - the most amazing and interesting museum I've ever visited! The museum was covered in vines and we were taken through a door which led to a beautiful forest, then to an underground museum. It was nice and cold down there and the air was fresh (a nice change :) ). The guide showed us traditional Indonesian instruments, beautiful paintings of the royal family and told us interesting stories about the family members' lives throughout history and explained a lot about Yogyakarta's culture. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos but I took a few photos as we approached the museum and one of a slanting (falling) work of art symbolising the degradation of Yogyakarta's culture in recent years. Then we walked back to where the bus should have been waiting to take us home, but the bus had finished for the day! We had no way to get home until a friendly man approached us and organised his friend to take us home, but it wasn't cheap! He knew he had us, and we knew that too so we paid the 1,500,000Rp and remained grateful to finally be taken home after a very fun and adventurous day!
The next week, the majority of ACICIS students and I were taken to a beautiful beach in Gunung Kidul about 2.5 hours away from Yogyakarta. It was so much fun to go on another new adventure with two bus loads of Aussies and ACICIS staff. It was fascinating to see more village life in another mountainous part of Yogyakarta and great to breathe in fresh air again. The bus drove through forests and up very steep roads with absolutely beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. I appreciated being out of the hot and bustling city centre, and into the quiet and less humid natural surroundings. When we reached the beach the first bus load of people were already in the clear, warm water. Ri and I ran up the steps of the bungalow, dumped our stuff, got our bathers on then dived into the water. It was incredible :) We spent the rest of the day exploring the beach, chatting, eating a delicious seafood dinner, playing cards and then crashing on our swags - then being woken by more and more people finding a spot to sleep on the wooden, bungalow floor (there must of been about 25 of us sleeping in one line- it was a cozy experience!). The next day was great and we met more international students from Germany and Switzerland who played a very entertaining and competitive game of Uno! After this, everyone went scouting for their lunch from various nearby warungs - I ate Lotek my favourite Indo meal made of kankung (like spinach but better), compacted rice, cucumber, fried tempe and tofu then covered with peanut sauce. Yumm :) We ate our lunch by the sea then jumped on the bus to go home. What a great weekend!
Last week was also exciting since my development studies buddies plus Alex, Ri and Fay travelled to Jakarta for a Global Leadership Conference which focused on the Millennium Development Goal's and local knowledge. The first day was interesting since professionals in the aid sector spoke about their experiences and perspectives on helping people get out of poverty. There was a speaker from the United Nations who talked about his work in Indonesia, a man from Japan who shared about his work in natural disaster management which was very relevant to Indonesia since there are always earthquakes, landslides and volcanos erupting. The next day university students from Indonesia, the Philippines and one student from Uzbekistan spoke about development issues. However, their English was a little bit difficult to understand which made it hard to concentrate for 4 consecutive hours before and after lunch. However, lunch was delicious and dinner was always very special since we were always given an array of amazing foods to choose from. We were taken to a beautiful restaurant surrounded by water on the first night, then the Governor's House on the second night. The Uzbekistan couple loved to dance at these events so it was fun to get up on the dance floor and bust a move after dinner then to sit down and laugh at everyone else. On the last day we were taken to Tamun Mini which is a miniature layout of Indonesia and each region's different cultures. It was fascinating learn about these differences and to see all the different architectural and interior designs. My favourite house was probably from North Sumatra because their rooms were intricately painted on the outside with bright colours and inside the rooms were filled with colourful fabrics. The North Sumatran's also had a matriarchal society which is cool. The homes from Sulawesi were also amazing since they were constructed high above the ground and some times in trees!
I am thoroughly enjoying living in Indonesia and thank you so much to each one of you who are praying for me. I can definitely feel your support. I am heading out to the most impoverished village with the worst sanitation levels in Indonesia on Saturday so your prayer will be MUCH appreciated over the next few months.
Thank you and God Bless,
Pip xxx
